Healthcare today is rapidly evolving. Care providers are tasked with navigating the headwinds of workforce shortages, a new policy landscape, changing patient expectations and shifting demographics. These changes are reshaping the way care is delivered. That is why hospital systems are adapting to meet patients where they are by providing the right care at the right time.
To fully support patient needs in today’s healthcare environment, we must provide our clinicians, nurses and workforce with the tools they need while working to lessen administrative and cognitive burden. This is how patients and communities receive the best care possible in the appropriate setting.
Healthcare is becoming increasingly complex, driven by the growing need for technological innovation and integration. The rapid pace of digital advancement has created a fragmented healthcare technology gap that can be just as challenging to manage as the care itself. Multiple systems, platforms and data sources are used in care settings without alignment. Simplifying this complexity through innovative, secure and validated integrations can ease cognitive burden for clinicians.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Health systems can take action by building and embedding new technologies in the form of micro applications directly into workflows of EHRs and other platforms. This digital foundation surfaces insights exactly when they are needed, supporting better decisions and stronger patient outcomes.
What makes this approach especially powerful and scalable is that it builds on government-catalyzed standards set forth by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) through programs such as Meaningful Use and the 21st Century Cures Act.
By leveraging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies (SMART), and implementing “SMART on FHIR” applications, clinicians can easily access and act on clinical data while still in their EHR. The next evolution, what we call “SMART and FHIR,” enables embedded apps to pull and synthesize data across multiple clinical platforms. These apps are not only interoperable with EHRs but also networked and interoperable with one another, creating an emerging paradigm for platform-level interoperability.
This framework allows for lighter, faster and more agile development and often serves as a bridge before full EHR support. However, EHR partners and the industry as a whole cannot solve every problem in isolation. This approach provides building blocks that can be scaled across multiple EHR applications, ensuring solutions are not only effective but sustainable over time.
This is not innovation for innovation’s sake. Instead, it is innovation with a measurable, real-world impact. Each application is designed to address a specific need, streamline clinical workflows and ultimately enhance patient care in ways that are tangible and lasting.
By allowing clinicians and associates to spend more time with patients, a more streamlined and compassionate approach to care can be forged.
The ultimate goal is to reduce friction from fragmented systems while keeping patients at the center of every interaction. The future of healthcare depends on how we support those called to deliver it. If we want to maintain access, improve outcomes and deliver compassionate care to every person we serve, we must act with urgency, purpose and creativity today.
Samit Desai, M.D., is vice president of clinical experience and chief medical information officer at Ascension.